海角大神

Inexplicably, Eric Rohmer鈥檚 鈥淎 Summer鈥檚 Tale,鈥� made in 1996, is just now being released in America. The insufferable wait was well worth it. The third installment in his 鈥淭ales of the Four Seasons鈥� cycle, it鈥檚 a movie about the vagaries of young love made by a man in his mid-70s. (Rohmer died at age 89 in 2010.) This young-old duality gives the film an added dimension: We seem to be living right alongside the film鈥檚 bright, burnished people as they vacation in seaside Brittany, and yet Rohmer observes them with a calm, almost paternal bemusement.

Rohmer is valued as a filmmaker who could make long, static dialogue sequences dynamic. So it鈥檚 something of a surprise that 鈥淎 Summer鈥檚 Tale鈥� opens with perhaps 10 minutes of near-wordlessness. Gaspard (Melvil Poupaud, who has since starred in many French films), a recent college graduate in mathematics, arrives in the Breton resort town of Dinard for a three-week vacation before beginning a new job. He checks into a room and strums his guitar and people-watches at the local cafes. The sensual ease of these scenes, swathed in sunshine and blue sky, is a tease: Rohmer soon brings us into his familiar world of crisscrossing romantic entanglements.

Gaspard is befriended by a local waitress, Margot (Amanda Langlet, who played the title character in Rohmer鈥檚 1983 鈥淧auline at the Beach鈥�), who seems enchanted by his coy diffidence. Gaspard claims he is waiting for a call from his 鈥渟ort of鈥� girlfriend L茅na (Aur茅lia Nolin). Margot, who is an ethnologist in the off-season, says she has a boyfriend who is working overseas. It鈥檚 clear to us, if not to these two, that they are made for each other. But, mating games being what they are in a Rohmer movie, things are never quite as simple as they appear.聽

Margot encourages Gaspard to hook up with her girlfriend Sol猫ne (Gwena毛lle Simon), a bank teller whose impulsiveness overwhelms him. Not long after, the much heralded L茅na actually arrives, and what began as a womanless vacation for Gaspard turns into a multiple-choice test.聽

Lean and bushy-haired, Gaspard may at first seem withdrawn, but his low-key moodiness functions as a come-on to these women. He says, 鈥淚 have to be loved to be in love, and since no one loves me, I don鈥檛 love anyone.鈥� It鈥檚 one of his many seductions. The fact that he may not be altogether aware of how he comes across is part of his charm 鈥� and his untrustworthiness. Most directors would have played Gaspard鈥檚 complications as farce but Rohmer is too much the amused philosopher for that. He is tickled by Gaspard鈥檚 seductive seriousness; he also enjoys giving him his comeuppance. It鈥檚 clear when L茅na arrives on the scene that she is too much for Gaspard. Suddenly his shiftiness seems a bit silly.聽

One of the drawbacks to Rohmer鈥檚 style is that he has a diagrammatic approach to relationships. He sees human interactions as a series of parables. His movies are demonstrations as much as they are dramatizations. But at his best, in films such as 鈥淢y Night at Maud鈥檚,鈥澛� 鈥淐laire鈥檚 Knee,鈥� and 鈥淟e Rayon Vert,鈥� he breaks through to the emotional core of these parables. 鈥淎 Summer鈥檚 Tale鈥� is relatively minor Rohmer, but, within its own circumscribed terms, it鈥檚 just about faultless. He makes you smile at the machinations of these young people, who are toying with 鈥� and grappling with 鈥� their attraction for each other. This is a movie of high innocence, set at a time in life when romantic love is still a frolic and the seaside is a balm that quells all ills. Grade: B+ (This film is rated G.)